


When the World Isn't on Fire Anymore

by Eastling (Annwyd)



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: #BuckyNat Week, F/M, Prompt Fill, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 15:04:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3574142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annwyd/pseuds/Eastling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before a fight at Natasha's side, Bucky thinks on the past with her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the World Isn't on Fire Anymore

He woke up disoriented, his head swimming with the debris of decades. A few fragments of dreams lingered at the edge of his consciousness--barbed wire at the edges of battlefields and old machine guns that wouldn't fire unless he remembered the password to unlock a smartphone.

"That's what I get for napping on the job," was all Bucky said out loud, though, as he got back to his feet. It didn't help, because as he stretched, he could see the uniform he was wearing, the reds and blues and whites and blacks arranged all wrong into stars and stripes-- _he_ shouldn't have been the one wearing this, he knew that.

"Don't think of it as napping on the job," Natasha said from the other side of the room they'd been camping out in while waiting to join the fight.

"Hard not to, really," he said. He could hear the chaos growing outside.

She pursed her lips. "Think of it as taking my very good advice to get some rest before the battle because you didn't sleep well last night."

He managed a small smile. "It was more of an order than advice."

"You didn't have to follow it," she said. "I'm not your superior. This isn't your old war."

"You don't have to tell me that," he said, feeling the memories that had plagued his dreams flicker and shift in his head. She must have seen them behind his eyes, because she fell silent, then, watching him thoughtfully. He continued, "There were _battles_ back then, and _waiting_. The front and the rear, and people giving orders I could trust." The disorientation threatened to creep up on him again. "It's not like being a superhero these days."

She closed the distance between them with steady steps, her gaze locked on his as she read all the doubts and uncertainties in his eyes. "But you did a good job of that and you do a better job of this," she said.

"I don't make it look as good as you do," he said.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," she said.

He didn't know what to say to that, so he just reached out and grabbed her hand that had once wielded the same guns as his. "Time to join the other Avengers," he said.

"One thing first," she said.

"What?" he asked, trying to remember what preparation he'd missed.

"Whatever else has changed--" She leaned up and she kissed him.

"Natalia..."

"A kiss before a battle is still good luck, James," she said. "Let's go."


End file.
